I sold wrapping paper, ribbon, gift cards, and custom stationery door to door when I was eight years old. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t always fun. Even as a kid, a lot of doors were slammed in my face, and I found some days pretty hard to tolerate.
I complained a lot to my dad, but he just kind of laughed it off. He put his hands on my shoulders, looked me in the eyes, and said, “Son, it takes all kinds of people to make a world, and you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
Geez. Pretty important lesson for an eight year old, right? It’s also an important lesson for anyone in the service industry, like dentistry. A message I often share with less experienced practitioners is that you don’t have to treat everyone who walks through your door. Some patients are just not a good fit, whether due to personality, lack of compliance, or unrealistic expectations for clinical outcomes. Sometimes you can determine that in advance, and sometimes you can’t.
I remember walking into an operatory one Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. to greet a patient who was new to my practice. As I entered to welcome him, however, he shouted “You’re twelve seconds late!” That really caught me off guard and I kind of mumbled “What did you say?” in response. He pointed at his watch and said, “My Rolex is never wrong. You’re twelve seconds late!” And I calmly replied, “I’m so glad you let me know how important time is to you, because, you see, I’m never on time and therefore I could never be your dentist.” And I left the operatory.
Question: Do you honestly think I could have established a successful long-term relationship with such an abusive person? And, if I could, why would I want to?
There are those who add joy to our lives and there are those who absolutely suck the life right out of us. And, if we mistakenly accept a patient for treatment who is not a good fit, it’s important for the well-being of the entire team to properly, professionally, and legally dismiss that patient from the practice.
As my dad advised, “It takes all kinds of people to make a world, and you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Stop trying.
“The secret to happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do.”
James M. Barrie
